Hayden’s knowledge of the turf, from a career in military intelligence that led to the top NSA post in 1999, is widely conceded even by those opposed to his nomination, as this BBC profile notes. (His official White House bio is here). Hayden’s candidacy, however, cuts across two contentious issues: the controversial and recently revealed NSA wiretaps of American citizens following 9/11, and the military’s control of large parts of the sprawling U.S. intelligence system. Richard K. Betts, a CFR expert on the intelligence community, discusses the relevance of both topics to Hayden's nomination in an interview with cfr.org's Bernard Gwertzman.

The 9/11 commission and other reports blame much of the dysfunction within sixteen separate American intelligence agencies on a bureaucracy that works at cross purposes, competes for budget and is reluctant to share information – a problem still hampering it, according to this March GAO report. That is why the job of Director of National Intelligence, held by John Negroponte, was created. Yet reports suggest the military-civilian turf war rages on. “In recent months, the Pentagon has asserted its authority to expand its own intelligence operations far beyond tactical support for soldiers,” reports the Los Angeles Times.

But "The Agency" isn't all it once was for another reason. As Thomas Powers points out in a New York Times op-ed, the CIA, a scapegoat for 9/11 and pre-Iraq war intelligence failures, "has now been demoted to a combination action arm and support service for the rapidly growing Office of the Director of National Intelligence, headed by John Negroponte."